Reducing friction: the small secret to bigger mission success.

Written by

Kevin Smith

Thinking back to my childhood, the grocery store looms large. When you’re a kid in a supermarket, time stands still. My mother’s review of the weekly circular and clipped coupons sentenced me to an eternity of shelf scanning and pointless coveting of things she’d never be talked into. (Capri-Sun, a staple in every cool kid’s brown bag lunch, being a memorable example.) The time thievery then culminated in more waiting in the checkout line until a cashier could punch every decimal place into a cash register.

A 2023 University of Chicago study found that the discomfort of waiting intensifies as the wait draws closer to its end. So, it turns out my checkout feelings were legit. And that sinking feeling that comes with discovering a long line is even more palpable today. Why? Because we’re out of practice. We’re waiting less, life is moving faster, and more seamlessly. Savvy program experience designers have removed friction wherever possible. And we can learn a thing or two from them.

In behavioral economics, friction refers to anything — waiting in line, for example — that makes it harder to take action. Modern retailers hate friction, and nowhere is its abolition more evident than in e-commerce. Consider Amazon’s “Buy now with 1-Click” button that eliminates the cart, payment and review steps, or Apple Pay’s auto-filling of addresses and credit card information. E-tailers reduce decision-making friction by showing things that are “frequently bought together.” They use chatbots to provide instant answers to questions, reducing uncertainty and preventing abandonment.

Friction is also the enemy of cause marketers seeking behavioral change. If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this:

People don’t fail to change because of a lack of knowledge, but a lack of ease.

This principle is at the heart of For Goodness Sake’s Core Narrative Reframe, which sparks the first action toward change. The first action shouldn’t ever be a big one, just a small, relatively easy win that boosts motivation and creates distance from past failures. This creates a Fresh Start Effect, making a person more likely to keep going. The first step is not only the most important but also the most vulnerable to friction.

When reviewing a new client’s intervention strategy, I often find:

• The first step is too difficult, and

• It’s made worse by friction, and

• Leadership is adamant that the friction can’t be removed.

If you are insisting that a point of friction can’t be overcome, that’s a sign it must be.

Asking what friction is present and how it can be eliminated is the best and fastest route to greater efficacy. Here are some real-world first steps that overcome friction:

1	Dry January & Meatless Monday These actions are doable for most and demonstrate identity shifting, practicing oneself into being.

2	Carbon footprint calculator WWF and the EPA offer a questionnaire that allows users to not only calculate their footprint but also compare it to others around the world.

3	The stroke Act FAST campaign The American Heart Association, Ad Council and the Stroke Association used the availability heuristic and this acronym to prompt more immediate medical attention. (Face Drooping, Arm Weakness, Speech Difficulty, Time to Call 911.)

4	Pledge your birthday to clean water Charity: Water used a temporally anchored commitment to make fundraising easier and more celebratory.

5	Enter your phone number to get voter reminders Rock the Vote implemented this nonpartisan nudge to boost turnout and localize messaging.

The road to meaningful change may never be easy, but we can do more to clear the on-ramp for those we’re trying to help. The longer they’ve been waiting for change, the more their patience is growing thin. Our charge is to be there when the time for change has come, when the status quo is approaching a tipping point. I like to think of it as the checkout line moment. Perhaps that’s the case not only for your beneficiaries but also for your organization. It may well be time to grease the wheels.

To making good a little easier,

Kevin

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Kevin Smith, Principal   Kevin Smith is co-founder and lead strategist of the social impact communications firm For Goodness Sakes. Working on behalf of nonprofits, foundations and government agencies, the firm helps people adopt life-changing behavior shifts using the principles of behavioral science.

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